The Global Agenda Forums have an update from Hi-Rez Studios about Tribes Ascend, their upcoming revival of the TRIBES series of first-person shooters (thanks reddit). They are looking to address concerns that the game's recently revealed free-to-play business model will include "pay-to-win" elements, which they say will not be the case:

No. Even as a 'free-to-play' game our general philosophy is to make all gameplay affecting items and loadouts earnable thru gameplay.

However we will allow players a path to earn loadouts and items more quickly by spending their money rather than their time. And we will offer a variety of cosmetic/prestige items for sale that do not affect game balance.

We will not be using the same exact system as Global Agenda, but you can see that general philosophy in place within Global Agenda. When speaking with IGN we described our intent to have load-outs earnable thru gameplay or purchasable, but to also maintain balance between all the load-outs. The writer found that analogous to League of Legends in that their champions are earn-able or purchasable but without any power discrepancy between the free ones, earned ones, or bought ones. And it is a model/game that has been embraced by the e-sports/competitive community. The writer's analogy is fitting but only goes so far since the Tribes: Ascend gameplay is so different.

That thread is old. I'm surprised it got posted to Reddit so late. Notice the responses were purged and locked because there was an overflow of negative responses.

Hump wrote on Jul 10, 2011, 21:52:If its fun, I'm playing the fucking thing, especially for free.

Its a game folks, it ain't wall street....

CH, obviously it won't be the original Tribes (or the other two either). Having said that, if you enjoy that style of play and you don't have to shell out a dime, whats the problem? It's either this or no Tribes or Tribes-like gameplay at all.

No, it's not what any of us would ask for in a Tribes game but half a loaf is better than no loaf (bad cliche's, I know)

Well if its half a loaf we can all stick to playing Tribes 1 or Tribes 2, get the full loaf and its free. So sad. The Grandaddy innovative FPS has just been hung out to dry ever since the break up of Dynamix.

Jerykk wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 01:30:I really don't understand why devs can't make a good Tribes sequel. Yes, I know they want to appeal to a broader audience but that doesn't mean they have to change or remove things that people liked in the previous games. Nobody asked for a two-weapon limit. Nobody asked for a limited, predefined loadout system. Nobody asked for unlockables and grinding. Nobody asked for a sniper rifle that uses ammo instead of energy. Nobody asked for a pistol.

If you want to make an accessible Tribes game, provide extensive and enjoyable tutorials that novices and veterans can both use. Skiing challenges, midair disc challenges, sniping challenges, flag passing challenges, etc. Activities that would help newbies learn the basics while helping veterans hone their skills.

Agreed. Tribes 1 was simple (graphically) and had tutorials for everything. It was great! The very essence of the original Tribes is lost forever.Grinding in Tribes?? That sounds stupid to me. The problem that I see with game development today is that the suits have gotten too involved and want to cash in on the classics that we all loved. It's like the current trend of remaking the older movies and 99% of them turn out to be trash (Example: Clash of The Titans). I'm so tired of all the greed involved in gaming and every other aspect of American life. I wish all these greedy suits would just die already. Our entire planet is shaped by greed and I for one am tired of it. We can't even watch a television show without a commercial break every 8 minutes. Who the hell needs a break after only 8 minutes? Someone should create a nasty virus that only targets greedy people. The world would be a better place without these douchebags. Games used to be about fun. Now it's about quarterly earnings.

OldScho0l you have a ronanticized view of history that never was. Money is the prirmary motivator for game creation, always has been. Artistic and creative aspects are secondary, since everyone needs to pay the bills and pay to support their lifestyle. Greed is an aspect of human nature. Greed is something that made us a successful species on this planet. You can't fight human nature. You will inevitably fail as has been shown countless times throughout history. Al you can do is understand human greed and accept it and try to guide it for non destructive purposes. You can restrain its worst abuses.

You think that humans are a successful species? Seriously? Iím laughing out loud at your ignorance. We are killing the only planet we have and are war mongering idiots hell bent on destroying ourselves and it's all attributed to greed, yet you consider this to be a success? I think you are wrong and when we are living on a planet that can barely support us (it's not far off), you will see that greed is the biggest failure and crime against nature that we have committed. Good luck with your false view of life as a human. With your point of view and others who share it, we are sure to doom ourselves. Greed is fucking useless! You can't take a single fucking thing with you when you die. Human stupidity never ceases to amaze me. BTW, Tribes 1 and it's developers were far from greedy. The game was like 15$ when it came out and that was less than half of what other games were going for at the time. If you were not there and didn't know this, then you should STFU because you don't know what you are talking about. You think you are smart but all I hear from your comment is ignorance and acceptance to bend over and take it in the ass. Who knows, maybe you like it in the ass.Also, I was alive when things we purchased were quality items and people took pride in what they created. Today we get garbage for our money and we pay way more for it. Maybe you like paying for trash, but I have a brain in my head that knows the difference. You talk about greed as being human nature like it's a good thing. That's just dumb and shows me that you only care about yourself. Humans have had many urges that made us strive for more all the way back to the time when we were rodents. We evolved because we learned to ignore the things that made us animals. Greed is just one of those things. Greed does not help our species at all and it will likely destroy us. The greed you speak of is the very reason why many people go hungry or starve to death while others have more than they will ever need. Your argument shows a lot about your character. It's sad actually.This comment was edited on Jul 11, 2011, 22:10.

Krael wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 10:13:There's probably a better place to ask this, but what exactly made Tribes 1 so much fun? I played the heck out of it back in the day, and still have a soft spot for it. I just can't quite put my finger on exactly *why* I loved it

Speed (that includes skiing).Flying.Acrobatics.Airdiscs.

Oh and of course: SHAZBOT!

I'll add a few more items:

Server-side modification for most mods

Extensive (and I do mean unbelievably extensive) scripting so you could customize your experience to your preferred play style- Think WOW UI levels of scripting years before WOW.

Viable defensive options

Absurdly large maps with absurdly large player capacity (we went from 4-8 players up to 32, that was huge)

Fion wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 00:46:Jackplug did you try the PvP in global agenda? The PvE is really only there as a way to get your levels on, but you can do that in PvP just as well. The games 'end game' GvG based PvP is actually quite well done and a hell of a lot of fun.

On topic, my beef with this game using microtransactions is, I though they were only used for MMOGs? Since when do shooters have microtransactions?

Krael wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 10:13:There's probably a better place to ask this, but what exactly made Tribes 1 so much fun? I played the heck out of it back in the day, and still have a soft spot for it. I just can't quite put my finger on exactly *why* I loved it

Speed (that includes skiing).Flying.Acrobatics.Airdiscs.

Oh and of course: SHAZBOT!

This comment was edited on Jul 11, 2011, 11:23.

Waiting for BIS to come back to their senses and do a real ArmA 2 successor.

There's probably a better place to ask this, but what exactly made Tribes 1 so much fun? I played the heck out of it back in the day, and still have a soft spot for it. I just can't quite put my finger on exactly *why* I loved it

Jerykk wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 01:30:I really don't understand why devs can't make a good Tribes sequel. Yes, I know they want to appeal to a broader audience but that doesn't mean they have to change or remove things that people liked in the previous games. Nobody asked for a two-weapon limit. Nobody asked for a limited, predefined loadout system. Nobody asked for unlockables and grinding. Nobody asked for a sniper rifle that uses ammo instead of energy. Nobody asked for a pistol.

If you want to make an accessible Tribes game, provide extensive and enjoyable tutorials that novices and veterans can both use. Skiing challenges, midair disc challenges, sniping challenges, flag passing challenges, etc. Activities that would help newbies learn the basics while helping veterans hone their skills.

Agreed. Tribes 1 was simple (graphically) and had tutorials for everything. It was great! The very essence of the original Tribes is lost forever.Grinding in Tribes?? That sounds stupid to me. The problem that I see with game development today is that the suits have gotten too involved and want to cash in on the classics that we all loved. It's like the current trend of remaking the older movies and 99% of them turn out to be trash (Example: Clash of The Titans). I'm so tired of all the greed involved in gaming and every other aspect of American life. I wish all these greedy suits would just die already. Our entire planet is shaped by greed and I for one am tired of it. We can't even watch a television show without a commercial break every 8 minutes. Who the hell needs a break after only 8 minutes? Someone should create a nasty virus that only targets greedy people. The world would be a better place without these douchebags. Games used to be about fun. Now it's about quarterly earnings.

OldScho0l you have a ronanticized view of history that never was. Money is the prirmary motivator for game creation, always has been. Artistic and creative aspects are secondary, since everyone needs to pay the bills and pay to support their lifestyle. Greed is an aspect of human nature. Greed is something that made us a successful species on this planet. You can't fight human nature. You will inevitably fail as has been shown countless times throughout history. Al you can do is understand human greed and accept it and try to guide it for non destructive purposes. You can restrain its worst abuses.

Jerykk wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 01:30:I really don't understand why devs can't make a good Tribes sequel. Yes, I know they want to appeal to a broader audience but that doesn't mean they have to change or remove things that people liked in the previous games. Nobody asked for a two-weapon limit. Nobody asked for a limited, predefined loadout system. Nobody asked for unlockables and grinding. Nobody asked for a sniper rifle that uses ammo instead of energy. Nobody asked for a pistol.

If you want to make an accessible Tribes game, provide extensive and enjoyable tutorials that novices and veterans can both use. Skiing challenges, midair disc challenges, sniping challenges, flag passing challenges, etc. Activities that would help newbies learn the basics while helping veterans hone their skills.

Agreed. Tribes 1 was simple (graphically) and had tutorials for everything. It was great! The very essence of the original Tribes is lost forever.Grinding in Tribes?? That sounds stupid to me. The problem that I see with game development today is that the suits have gotten too involved and want to cash in on the classics that we all loved. It's like the current trend of remaking the older movies and 99% of them turn out to be trash (Example: Clash of The Titans). I'm so tired of all the greed involved in gaming and every other aspect of American life. I wish all these greedy suits would just die already. Our entire planet is shaped by greed and I for one am tired of it. We can't even watch a television show without a commercial break every 8 minutes. Who the hell needs a break after only 8 minutes? Someone should create a nasty virus that only targets greedy people. The world would be a better place without these douchebags. Games used to be about fun. Now it's about quarterly earnings.

The whole PR campaign for this game seems like a giant bait and switch. F2P or not, I have other stuff to play so no thanks. I want a faithful Tribes adaptation, not a promise to do so followed by 10 announcements of radical changes that make no sense.

Warskull wrote on Jul 11, 2011, 01:54:[...] all the people who keep hearing that Tribes was really good, but never actually played it, run and buy it. 5 minutes later they realize the game is terrible and absolutely nothing like Tribes.[...]

And how exactly does that work? How do these people know that this game is nothing like Tribes although they never even played Tribes? Magicz?

This is just what they did with their last game. They make a terrible game, go "hey we have jetpacks, like Tribes" and all the people who keep hearing that Tribes was really good, but never actually played it, run and buy it. 5 minutes later they realize the game is terrible and absolutely nothing like Tribes.

Hi-Rez has problems at a very core level. They have bad developers who don't understand what makes a game good running things. The results are bad games.

I really don't understand why devs can't make a good Tribes sequel. Yes, I know they want to appeal to a broader audience but that doesn't mean they have to change or remove things that people liked in the previous games. Nobody asked for a two-weapon limit. Nobody asked for a limited, predefined loadout system. Nobody asked for unlockables and grinding. Nobody asked for a sniper rifle that uses ammo instead of energy. Nobody asked for a pistol.

If you want to make an accessible Tribes game, provide extensive and enjoyable tutorials that novices and veterans can both use. Skiing challenges, midair disc challenges, sniping challenges, flag passing challenges, etc. Activities that would help newbies learn the basics while helping veterans hone their skills.